The annual rankings, performed by the American Institutes of Research, require a school to get its students, including its low-income, black and Latino students, to post above-state-average results on state reading and math tests. Schools then are ranked by the share of students who take and pass college-level Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams.

The highest-ranking school was Corbett High, where every single student in the school’s class of 2011 took an AP test and 76 percent of them passed at least one. That ranked it No. 70 in the nation.

Oregon’s two other gold star schools were Lake Oswego High (No. 332 nationally; 51percent of seniors passed at least one AP test); West Linn High (No. 408; 44 percent).

Those results marked a noticeably decrease from the 2012 rankings, in which a small Beaverton magnet school, The International School of Beaverton, ranked No. 20 in the nation and four other Oregon high schools were in the top 400.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics made the top 500 this year. It ranked No.
357, with 48 percent of its students passing at least one AP class.

As a state this year, Oregon ranked No. 19 at producing gold-and silver-star schools.

Thirty-three, or 12 percent, of its 282 high schools that were big enough to be judged rated gold or silver. California was tops, with 28 percent of its high schools rated gold or silver; Hawaii had none.

Oregon's silver-star schools this year include Portland's Grant, Lincoln and Wilson highs; Westview High in Beaverton; Clackamas High; and Oregon City High.